Workflow management in contact centers
View Patent ↗A method, system and computer program product are provided for monitoring a communication session in a contact center. An agent follows a structured workflow while handling the communications session, and trigger events are defined which are associated with significant steps in the workflow other than (or additional to) the connection and disconnection of the agent with the session. When a trigger event is detected indicating that the agent has reached a predefined significant step in the workflow, an event notification issues to another system of the contact center, such as a statistics package, or a supervisor workstation, or an event aggregator which receives such notifications from many agent stations. In a preferred embodiment, these event notifications are used by an automated outbound dialler to more accurately predict the time to the end of a communications session, thereby providing a better outbound dialling algorithm.
1. A method of monitoring a communication session performed by a computing system in a contact center, comprising the steps of:
providing to an agent at an agent station of said contact center a structured workflow for use by said agent in progressing said communication session in a structured fashion;
defining one or more trigger events associated with steps in said structured workflow other than the connection and disconnection of said communication session;
determining in advance of said communication session a performance metric of said agent which has been at variance with an average of the performance metrics of a group of agents at other agent stations of said contact center after reaching one of said steps in said structured workflow during previous communication sessions;
during said communication session involving said agent station, monitoring the progress of said communication through said structured workflow to thereby detect the occurrence of one of said trigger events which is associated with said one of said steps; and
upon detection of said one of said trigger events, issuing an event notification identifying said trigger event to an event-receiving service of the contact center which has been configured to receive such event notifications.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said monitoring of the progress of the communication comprises detecting inputs from an agent at said agent station.
3. A method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein said inputs are detected from the content of the communications session.
4. A method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein said inputs are detected from an interaction of said agent with a workflow application interface provided at said agent station.
5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said event-receiving service receives said event notifications from a plurality of agent stations and makes said event notifications available to other contact center services or entities.
6. A method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein said event-receiving service enables said other contact center services or entities to subscribe to receive event notifications which match predetermined criteria.
7. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step, taken by an outbound dialer of the contact center, of adjusting an outbound dialing rate in response to said trigger event.
8. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said outbound dialer is said event-receiving service of the contact center to which said event notification issues.
9. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said outbound dialer communicates with said event-receiving service of the contact center to which said event notification issues.
10. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said outbound dialer maintains for said communications session an expected call duration value and wherein said outbound dialer adjusts said expected call duration estimate in response to the progress of the communications session as indicated by the event notification.
11. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein said outbound dialling rate is determined by an algorithm having as an input said expected call duration estimate, whereby adjustment of said expected call duration estimate results in an adjustment of said outbound dialling rate.
12. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of causing said communications session to be recorded in response to said event notification.
13. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of conferencing into said communications session a supervisor in response to said event notification.
14. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of issuing an alert at a supervisor station in response to said event notification.
15. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of inputting said event notification into a statistical application which maintains real-time statistics relating to a plurality of contact center communications sessions based on said event notifications.
16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium encoding instructions which, when executed in a computing system of a contact center, are effective to cause said computing system to:
provide to an agent at an agent station of said contact center a structured workflow for use by said agent in progressing said communication session in a structured fashion;
define one or more trigger events associated with steps in said structured workflow other than the connection and disconnection of said communication session;
determine in advance of said communication session a performance metric of said agent which has been at variance with an average of the performance metrics of a group of agents at other agent stations of said contact center after reaching one of said steps in said structured workflow during previous communication sessions;
during said communication session involving said agent station, monitor the progress of said communication through said structured workflow to thereby detect the occurrence of one of said trigger events which is associated with said one of said steps; and
upon detection of said one of said trigger events, issue an event notification identifying said trigger event to an event-receiving service of the contact center which has been configured to receive such event notifications.
17. A system for monitoring a communication session in a contact center, comprising:
a structured workflow provided to an agent at an agent station of said contact center for use by said agent in progressing said communication session in a structured fashion, said workflow having identified therein one or more trigger events associated with steps in said structured workflow other than the connection and disconnection of said communication session;
an input for receiving a determination made in advance of said communication session that a performance metric of said agent has been at variance with an average of the performance metrics of a group of agents at other agent stations of said contact center after reaching one of said steps in said structured workflow during previous communication sessions;
a communication session monitor which is configured to monitor the progress of said communication through said structured workflow to thereby detect the occurrence of one of said trigger events which is associated with said one of said steps; and
an event notification mechanism for issuing an event notification upon detection of said one of said trigger events, identifying said trigger event to an event-receiving service of the contact center which has been configured to receive such event.